When the young J.B. West first went to work as assistant to the chief
usher at the White House in the spring of 1941, he found his boss busy
making a room ready for F.D.R.'s son John Roosevelt, who was just
getting out of the hospital.

"Is he very ill?" asked West. Indeed not, replied the chief
usher. John had nothing more than a medium case of the sniffles. You
see, he explained, "this goldfish bowl is made of magnifying...